Maybe Next Time
by BadOldWestern
Summary: Anna goes to send Kristoff off with a proper goodbye. Good thing the sled was available.


She comes to wish him goodbye during the ball, stealing a few moments outside.

Saying goodbye has never been easy for either of them, even with the promise of him returning within a week. But he's missing the ball, and while she shouldn't be disappointed about this because he's missed, well, all of them, she still feels a pang of betrayal that he isn't going when this time, she had asked him to. Casually. Downplaying that it mattered to her.

So maybe he didn't pick up on her hints that she wanted him there. When she posed it to him very, very causally he laughed it off and shook his head, saying not this week. He had said not this week, but not never. He could go to the next one, if she worked up the courage to ask twice.

The possibilities race through her mind. If she asked again, she could seem needy. This definitely wasn't his scene, was she selfish to make him go? What about her, would she go up to mountains with him for ice if he asked? Well, yes, that sounded like a great idea. It sounded fun, like an adventure.

Where a party sounded stuffy and boring and…

She sags against one of the lampposts, halting dead in her tracks. This 'two different worlds' thing was complicated. Nothing she couldn't handle, but…tiresome.

_Tiresome because you won't just tell him what's bothering you _the Elsa-sounding voice in her head chimes in. Anna sighs.

She wants him to be more of a part of her life, not just her private life. To be a part of the new friends she's making, and to see what he does when he's not steering a sled through a dark forest. She wants that mix between what he's like alone with her and what he's like around everyone else.

They're still in an incredibly secret phase, which she doesn't mind. But spending time together, not as lovers, but friends, sounds like it'd do a world of good.

_Just ask him to the next ball. You can't get so upset about something that hasn't even happened yet. _

She's going to miss him. She always misses him. So goodbye is the priority.

She can deal with this ball nonsense when he gets back. Why have a ball with no one to bring with you?

Anna brushes through the stable door, her new skirts swinging around her legs as she scans the dark stalls.

Kristoff glances up from the tack he's cleaning, alone next to his prized sled. He looks pleasantly surprised to see her.

"New dress?" he observes, and she twirls for him.

"To replace the one from…last time." She says, trailing off slightly at the darkly nostalgic glint in his eyes.

"Uh huh…" he rises to walk towards her, putting the harness aside.

"Kristoff, I have to get back to the party in a few minutes."

He smirks, and they both know why she's here. She said goodbye before the ball, when she was getting ready, but she's here for other reasons.

He stops in front of her, touching the blue ribbon woven into her hair.

She holds her breath, knees withering at the sight of his smirk, the stubble along his jaw…

"Get in the sled," he orders, scooping her up.

She lets out a surprised cascade of laughter, squirming in his arms, twisting this way and that in a struggle to press her lips to his yet to avoid his own advances towards her.

"I don't have enough time to get dressed up again, so we'll have to work around that." She says authoritatively, as he lowers her to sit on the floor of the sled, her feet brushing the stone ground of the stall. He bends to kiss her, a sloppy, distracted kiss that's meant to lead to other things instead of being savored.

"Nothing we haven't done before," he points out with a smirk.

She pushes him by his shoulders to stand up straight, working the belt off his hips. She frees his semi-erect cock from its confines and before he has time to lose his mind in lusty shock, she's working her tongue over the tip.

"Where the hell did you learn that?"

She only moans in response as she closes her mouth over the head of his cock. He fights the urge to thrust into her mouth, and thread his fingers in the hair at her scalp, loosening her elaborate braid. She sucks hungrily, a little too intensely because she's never done this before and she's trying to make up for inexperience with passion. Already he feels he needs to shy away to prevent the inevitable, and slides his fingers under her chin to push her back by her jaw gently. She releases him with wide eyes, tucking stray hairs behind her ear in that way she does when she's nervous.

"Didn't want things…to end back there…" he pants out, dropping onto his knees to kiss her. He feels her realize why he stopped her, when her body releases all this tension and she returns his kiss with a reserved sort of gloating.

He lays her on her back, climbing on top of her so they lie together on the floor of the sled.

It's a tight squeeze, and he's pretty sure a bit of the running board has jammed into his shin, but still worth it. Her thighs grip and grasp at his hips and she whimpers and giggles all at once. Her body against his is not a still, artistically draped masterpiece. That's one thing they learned, her especially. She'd stumbled upon a wing in the galleries that was filled with entwined lovers, embraces, kisses, holding each other as though the world would collapse. Such drama. That's what she expected sex to be like. Elegant poses and still limbs. She was wrong from the start.

Kristoff loves his encounters with Anna because she's so alive, she wiggles and writhes and makes noise. And there is nothing elegant about the way her breathing trembles and that's what makes it so good for him. Un-tucked, unbound, lacking in structure and rules and all the little things they both have to learn together.

Her skirts are recklessly tossed up to be tangled around her hips, her underthings pulled down or aside or just out of the damn way. Fingers tease her: sliding up and down her seam before stroking her clit with her own wetness. She bucks against his hand, needing a finger or two or just _something _inside of her right this second. She moans thankfully when he enters her, whispering his promises to return the favor with his own mouth when they had more time to spare.

He fiercely kisses her, the kind of kiss that overpowers almost everything else between them, overpowers yet enhances. The noises she makes are choked under the ferocity of his mouth moving against hers, as his thrusts roll against her. She rocks against the base of the sled, shoved back and forth by his hips. She wraps her arms around his neck and rides them out. It's never been like this before. He has never allowed himself this necessary roughness before. Kristoff was kind words and gentle touches, now he was steely, quiet and furiously moving against her.

She looks to his face and expected darkness, but sees only focus and determination. She isn't sure what inspired this change but feels no desire to complain.

His hands smooth down her back to settle on her hips, grasping them and hiking them up to change the angle he entered her from. She shudders at the alteration, and moments later she knows it made all the difference. She focuses on this one small part of everything else he was doing to her body because his force is so overwhelming, until finally she cracks apart underneath him, whimpering into his shoulder. He feels her walls trembling around his cock and groans roughly in her ear, allowing himself to cum inside her with a low growl, holding her languid body against his as she tries to regain her breath.

"That was….different," she pants out. He lifts his head to look at her cautiously, realizing his lapse in the usual careful control, "Good different!" she says, smoothing a comforting hand along his chest.

"It wasn't, you know, too rough or anything?" he brushes a hand along her hip, and the skin under his touch sings, even under the layers of fabric.

"Not at all. I'm really glad I caught you."

"Glad you skipped out on the party to say goodbye."

She grows quiet at this, cuddling against his body to rest her mind, to savor his presence before he went away.

"Why do I feel like you were trying to get me into the sled like this for a while?" she says, after what seems like a lifetime of stillness passes.

"Because you're right. Wasn't picturing it this way though."

"In the stables at night?" she snuggles her face into his neck, cooing in his ear.

"Uh…more like on the floor of the sled. I was picturing more…" he stops himself, like he's catching a secret before it escapes, "anyway, it was a bit more imaginative than all that."

"It sounds like you have plans for me. We should try them when you get back."

"Likewise. Are you just trying to tempt me to return home faster?"

"Maybe," She giggles, pulling bits of straw out of her hair. "I'm really glad I could see you off."

"Why do I feel like you're trying to get me to bring you along?" his eyes are still shut as he says it, and he slings an arm around her, snuggling her to his side.

"I don't hear you protesting."

"It's not a bad idea, I'll admit. But not tonight. Soon, I promise."

She sighs, curling a little fist against his chest, before sitting up and glancing over her shoulder down at him.

"I think one of these nights, you should come along with me too."

He looks up at her, about to argue but the idea strikes him. They are going to have to mix themselves into each other's lives. Right now the parts of them are so separate, and they can be cut right down the middle, her life in court against his work, and they rarely were exposed to the different parts of each other's lives.

She could trek through the ice for him. Hell, she wanted to. He could suffer through a night of frivolity for her.

He brushes his fingers down the arch of her spine, between two hunched shoulders.

"There's another one of these things in a week or two, right?" he says gently, pressing his brow to her shoulder, kissing her freckled skin as he awaits her answer.

"Yeah…" she sighs dreamily, turning to look at him with round, hopeful eyes.

"Do you have an escort?"

"Nothing serious." She says airily, relishing the twisted look on his face when she alludes to the other men at these parties.

"If it's not too serious, I was hoping you'd rather go with me."

"Yes," she says softly, turning herself fully to face him, tangling her hands in his hair, "I would love to."

He accepts her kiss, feeling very pleased with himself, but the kiss melts from gratitude to wanting. He knows he can only withstand so much more without rolling her back onto the floor, so he pulls back, stretching out the small kisses she gives until they break apart like a string snapping.

"I'll be back soon, I promise. We can break in the sled."

She nods, not listening. Her fingers find his collar and grip it tightly, her way of resisting his departure.

"And we can also use the sled to go places."

She stirs at this, swatting his arm with a scrunched-nosed smile.

"See you Wednesday," she gives him a quick kiss, ending it abruptly and rising to swish back out the doors.

She exits so quickly that it's like a flame being extinguished, the light there was suddenly and unavoidably gone. He stood in the darkness, knowing that he had to keep her close for light.

He would do whatever he could for her light.

He already lost it once.


End file.
